Chapter six

Solitude, and a bow

Over the next few days Kathy kept to herself. She slept off to the side of the camp and go for early morning walks by herself. She quiet frequently walked to Ariel's grave and placed flowers on it; she would sit down next to the grave and talked to the ground as if Ariel was really there listening. Kathy knew that she wasn't, but the pain of her loss was still to close and she wasn't ready to let go completely.

About two weeks after her arrival in Middle Earth, Aragorn decided to go and seek out Kathy. He found her sitting next to the tree and the head of Ariel's grave. She was tracing over the elvish words in the tree with her finger.

"Lady Kathy, I thought I should inform you that we will be leaving in two days for Merkwood. Legolas tells me that you will be joining us on the journey." Kathy stood up and walked towards Aragorn. Once more stopped a good distance from him and then looked at him. "I have nowhere to go, no one to trust, and no family to go home to. As long as I am not a burden to you, then yes, I would like to join you." She said as she turned her gaze to the ground. Aragorn took two steps forward and knelt down on one knee. "Lady Kathy, Legolas, Gimli and I will be here for you to trust when you are ready. I assure you, you will not be a burden. If anything, you will bring conversation to the group." Kathy looked up at him and smiled. She then started back towards camp. As she passed Aragorn, he added, "Tomorrow Legolas and I will be testing your skills, so that you may defend yourself if there is ever the need." Kathy turned her head and nodded, then proceeded to go back to camp.

Kathy was the first up the next morning. She slowly got up and walked around the camp. She spied Legolas' bow next to the tree he was sleeping under. She decided to go see just how bad her aim was, so she picked up the bow and arrows and walked off.

She had been out practicing for an hour when Legolas and Aragorn found her. They stood behind her, out of her view, watching. They watched as she notched an arrow and then took her stance, aiming and then firing. The arrow lodged itself to the tree she had targeted. Kathy then notched another arrow and took aim. She released it and this arrow landed less than an inch from her first arrow. She continued this process until she had fired six more arrows. She then slung the bow around her back and walked up to the tree. All of the arrows were dead center and within an inch from one another.

"You are very good at that." She heard a voice call from behind her. Quickly she turned to see Aragorn and Legolas standing there. They both came up to the tree and studied the arrangement of the arrows. "It is good to know that you know how to handle a bow. Mastering a bow like that is a true skill." Legolas said as he pulled the arrows out of the tree. Kathy had taken a few steps back for comfort, then replied, "Back home I use to go hunting with my compound bow. For the better part of my life I have used a bow, although I have never used a single-string bow before. It was hard to get used to the aiming." Legolas looked at her with a confused expression on his face. "What is a compound bow?"

Kathy smiled. Finally there was something she could talk to them about. "A compound bow is a very powerful bow. It has a single string that the arrow notches to, but there are two more strings that work with a pulley. The bow I had is a fifty-pound 'BEAR' bow. What that means is that when I notch an arrow and pull back the string, I'm putting fifty pounds of force behind my arrow. That is where the pulley comes in. The pulley helps to keep the weight of the bow from over powering me while I'm holding the string back. When I release the arrow, the weight of the bow takes over and sends the arrow farther and faster, and sends it to the target with a greater force than a regular bow." Kathy took a breath and added "All in all, it is a really cool bow. I miss it." She then smiled and quickly took an arrow from Legolas' hand, notching it to the bow and taking aim. Once again she fired, and the arrow landed in the center of the target. On another tree. "This bow of yours sounds like a mighty weapon. It is good that you have mastered it." Legolas said.

"Well, we know that you are skilled with a bow, so let's see if you can handle a sword." Aragorn suggested and handed Kathy a small, light-weight sword and then unsheathed his. Thinking back to all the moves she has seen in sword fighting movies, she decided to take what she saw on screen and apply it. Aragorn came at her hard. She raised her sword and met his in the air. He put all of his weight on his sward and forced Kathy to the ground. She quickly rolled out from underneath him and kicked him in the back, causing Aragorn to stumble forward. She quickly held up the sword to block another blow. The power behind his attack sent shock waves through her sword and she dropped it. Aragorn quickly knocked her feet from out from under her and brought his sword to her throat. Thinking back to another movie, she raised her foot and planted it on Aragorn's knee cap, causing him to collapse on the ground. She quickly rolled towards her sword and got up. She was about to maneuver into a kill position when a hand grabbed her from behind and put a dagger to her throat. Kathy stopped dead in her tracks. Aragorn was slowly getting up while rubbing his knee. "You should always look out for the second person," Legolas said as he released Kathy.

Aragorn walked up to Kathy and nodded his head, "Very good, I now know that you can defend yourself if the time ever occurs that you should have to." Kathy looked at them and then handed Aragorn the sword. "You keep it, you might need it later." Kathy gave him enthusiastic thanks and then headed with them back toward camp to talk with Gimli.

"Ah, Lady Kathy, I was just going to go find you, I have a question to ask you." Gimli said as Kathy walked back into camp.

"Well I have a question that is if you don't mind, I was wondering how old you where?" Gimli said as he sate down on a fallen log.

Kathy stood there she was kind of shocked that he would ask her age, but she really didn't care. "I am 25" She said with a smile on her face.

"You are older that I thought you where, I assumed you where not even twenty, forgive me." Gimli said.

"There is no need for forgiveness, I used to get that all the time, and it's because of the way I look." Kathy said as she took a seat, but she sate in the ground in front of Gimli. Gemli looked Kathy over, she was right it was her appearance. She was short, maybe five feet tall, she had long blond hair that was tangled and matted, her face was young looking, she did not have the face of someone in there mid twenties.

Kathy smiled at Gimli and then excused her self and walked back to her blanket.